End of Week Two

My grueling two day experiment in which Padre's was open on Sunday and Monday is over and we now know that there is enough demand to keep it going...with some help from the staff! I opened, worked, and closed both bar and kitchen with Paul playing lookout and bus boy. On Sunday, we posted on facebook that we needed a dvd player, and within a couple of hours one was delivered and purchased with a twenty from the register. It turns out that the main room converts very nicely to a movie theater, and we had several groups of people join us for our impromptu screening of 'Desperado'. If anyone knows where I can get my hands on the neon sign from the bar in that first scene, let me know! 

Another huge item was checked off our list when Paul learned how to program the jukeboxes to play continuously, which is not nearly as simple as it sounds. We can now enjoy hearing great songs whose numbers are not normally selected, instead of having to endure 'Right Down the Line' by Gerry Rafferty and 'Luckenbach, Texas' by Waylon Jennings 10 times a day. They are both GREAT songs, don't get me wrong, but I was starting to hear them in my dreams.  We opted for vinyl again on Monday night, and it felt like a positive sign when one of the handful of customers asked if we had any Thin Lizzy. Why, yes, we do!


As it pours rain today in Marfa, I am grateful that the casita is clean and the power is still on so I can sip my coffee and write. I'm also thankful that my sheets are in the dryer instead of on the line. Someone up there likes me. I'm doing my wash in the Padre's washer today, and as I creak through the quiet building, I hope Penskie, the cook who is prepping chili and red beans for the week, doesn't mistake me for a ghost. A customer at the bar last night told of 'seeing' her dead relatives at Padre's, but she later explained that she wasn't seeing ghosts, she just liked to imagine them there. What reason would a spirit have to haunt a funeral home, after all? (as I typed that line, the bells from St. Mary's began playing a very somber tune for today's 6 o'clock serenade-spooky)  

Paul is headed back to Austin for a few days, but I've still got a couple of weeks before my first journey back. I expect we will each have feelings associated with these visits that will help shape our futures. At this moment, it is easier to imagine staying in Marfa than going back to my old life in Austin, but how all of the people in my life fit into that plan is the bigger question.